Dishes for feeding animals, such as pets, typically need to be filled by the animals human caretaker on a regular basis. Often, human activities interfere with this regular feeding schedule. Animal caretakers may have to be away from the animal at a normally scheduled feeding time or be away for a period of days.
Due to the busy schedules of some animal owners, provisions must be made for feeding the animals when the owner or caretaker cannot. There is therefore perceived a need for a means for automatically refilling the food and/or water dishes of animals, such as household pets.
In addition, contaminants in tap water such as chlorine, lead or other chemical contaminants may be harmful to animals when ingested. Thus, it is beneficial to filter out some of these chemicals or other contaminants that may be harmful to an animal. A water filtration system could be especially beneficial to household pets such as dogs and cats. Cats have evolved by eating smaller animals such as mice. The livers of these animals are capable of eliminating toxic materials. However, the livers of dogs and cats have not evolved to handle the levels of toxic materials that can be found in some processed food and tap water.
The present invention relates generally to new and novel improvements in a filtered water system for pets. More particularly, the present invention relates to a filtered water system for pets that includes two (2) gravity feeding units, one (1) of which dispenses filtered water and the other of which dispenses dry pet food.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is the provision of a filtered water system for pets which provides filtered water and dry pet food for the pets.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by a filtered water system for pets that includes two (2) gravity feed units, one (1) of which dispenses filtered water and the other of which dispenses dry pet food. The filtered water gravity feed unit includes a breather tube such that when the water level drops below the breather tube level in the water bowl, air enters into the breather tube equalizing the pressure inside and outside of the water bottle. This allows water to fill the water bowl to a level where the pressure inside the water bottle is equal to or less than the pressure on the water in the water bowl and water stops flowing. The filter may be an activated carbon filter capable of removing chlorine, lead or other heavy metals. In addition, depending on the geographical water conditions, an iodine or similar filter could be used to remove bacteria from the water.
Other advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.